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 For a long time now Brazil has paid for scholarships so that university graduates could continue studying instead of entering the job market immediately. In 2005 the Brazilian government allocated 540 million reais (US$ 250 million) - and it should have spent more - to finance scholarships for Brazilian graduate students to study in Brazil or abroad. Inspired by this, the idea of the Bolsa-Escola, or School Stipend, was born in 1987 at the University of Brasília.
If Brazil needs to pay so that 35,000 adult college graduates continue studying after graduation and do not begin working, why should it not also pay so that millions of children study instead of working? The concept evolved into paying not only working children but all poor children, who live on the verge of dropping out of school. Besides attracting the children to studying, the Bolsa-Escola would give financial support to their families. In 1995 the idea became reality. The government of the Federal District began to pay a minimum wage to the mothers whose children attended school with no absences during the month. No matter the number of children in the family, a fixed amount was paid. This made it clear that program was not government aid but rather remuneration for a fundamental service to the country - guaranteeing all children an education - as important as the post-graduate scholarships. Just as the importance of the college scholarship is the course of studies the student is pursuing and not the income paid to him or her, what is important about the Bolsa-Escola is the student’s school attendance and not the money paid the family. And every month some families stopped receiving the benefit because one of their children had missed more than two days of school. Nevertheless, the program would not have the expected impact were it not for two other factors. First, the investment and the reforms to improve the quality of the school, without which the stipend is a mere income transfer with no tranformative impact. While the stipend guarantees the maintenance of the family, the school guarantees the emancipation of the family’s children. Without the stipend, many children would not attend school; without a good school, however, the stipend would not work. No stipend guarantees that the child will attend the school if the school is not attractive. Second, the payment of the Poupança Escola, or the School Savings: a 100 reais (US$ 46) bank deposit at the end of the school year for each child who passes to the next grade and enrolls in it. The child would withdraw the money at the end of his or her K-12 education. It was an incentive for the student to pass the grade and also to finish high school. In 2000, after other cities and countries had adopted the Bolsa-Escola, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso established it in Brazil. But it paid little and did not make the necessary changes in K-12 education. In 2005, the Lula government made the program worse, transforming it into the Bolsa Família. It changed the name "Escola," or School, to "Família," or Family, signaling the transformation of an educational program into a government-assistance one. Management of the program passed from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Social Assistance. In addition, it joined purely government assistance actions to the program. Although maintaining in the law the necessity of class attendance for the children of those benefiting, it put an end to the centrality of the educational aspect, making it impossible to link the stipend with the school, now that this is not the purpose of the ministry in charge. Even worse, it is not easy to demand of a family with children that which is not demanded of another needy family without any children of school age. The program was stripped of its character. Everyone knows that they will not be penalized if their children are out of school. The emancipating stipend became a maintenance one. But it turned into a program with a strong electoral appeal since it is seen as aid without counterpart, a kindness received from the government. Just like the slaves, who did not believe in abolition and were satisfied with any protective measure, the stipend beneficiaries are satisfied with the maintenance of their poor lives, instead of striving for an emancipatory education. And the President will still say in his reelection campaign that the candidates of others parties are going to put an end to the program that he created. Even if these other candidates are the ones who established the program in the Federal District or in Brazil. Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a PDT senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). You can visit his homepage - www.cristovam.com.br - and write to him at
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. Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome -
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